Manhattan teen to solo with Topeka orchestra

Three Topeka Symphony youth ensembles to perform concert

Jason Moldrup, a home-school Manhattan high school senior, will solo on the cello Sunday afternoon at White Concert Hall with the Topeka Youth Symphony Orchestra as the first runner-up and winner of the strings division of the 2012-13 Topeka Symphony Youth Talent Competition.

For his ability as a cellist, the spotlight will shine Sunday afternoon on Jacob Moldrup, a home-school high school senior from Manhattan.

As the first runner-up and strings division winner of the 2012-13 Topeka Symphony Youth Talent Competition, Moldrup will solo with the Topeka Youth Symphony Orchestra at a 3 p.m. Sunday program in White Concert Hall where the Symphony's other two youth ensembles, the Debut Orchestra and Youth Philharmonic, also will perform.

Moldrup, the son of Kurt and Sue Moldrup, has studied cello for 13 years, first for six years with Carolyn Sandquist, a Topekan who leads the Debut Orchestra, and since then with Kansas State University music professor David Littrell.

In addition to having performed in both the Debut Orchestra and Youth Orchestra, Moldrup plays in the Littrell-led Gold Orchestra, a youth ensemble that this year will perform in Carnegie Hall with Moldrup as a soloist and conductor assistant.

At Sunday's concert, admission to which is $5 for adults or $2 for students, Moldrup will play the first movement of Edouard Lalo's Cello Concerto in D Minor with the Youth Orchestra, directed by Jeremy Starr.

Carolyn Rich Voth will lead the middle school string players of the Youth Philharmonic as they play the second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Seventh Symphony; "The Young Prince and The Young Princess" movement from "Sheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; the intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera "Cavalleria Rusticana"; and "El Gato Tango," which composer Jeffrey S. Bishop wrote after hearing his three cats "sing" at feeding time.

Sandquist will conduct the youngest ensemble, the Debut Orchestra, in a program that will include "Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen; Richard Meyer's "Starfleet"; "Pavane for a Dead Princess" by Maurice Ravel; and Elliot Del Borgo's "Ancient Ritual."